University Library, University of North Bengal

The Department of Philosophy, University of North Bengal is all set to publish the XIXth volume of its journal ‘Philosophical Papers: Journal of the Department of Philosophy. The department takes pride in the fact that the journal is now in the UGC-CARE list, and hence the editorial team is committed to maintaining the standard with utmost care for the sake of its rich legacy.

The present volume contains a collection of articles covering diverse areas of philosophy, each unique in its content and style. The motive for inclusion of such varied topics lies in presenting the dynamicity of the discipline, as also to exhibit the strength of its methodology to delve deep inside any rational discourse, breaking the barriers of traditionality and conventionality.

We take this opportunity to thank all our valuable and respected contributors. We express our sincere gratitude and thanks to all the esteemed members of the editorial board. We are also thankful to all the colleagues in our department for their all round guidance and also their valuable and thoughtful suggestions in publishing this journal. We express our warm regards and indebtedness to our most beloved honourable Vice-Chancellor. Last but not the least our special thanks are due to the Registrar (Officiating), Finance Officer, and the University Press whose constant support has made the publication possible.

Temisan` Ebijuwa in, “Democracy, Good Governance, and Social Solidarity in Africa” attempts to show that the drive for an adequate form of political organization to address the challenges of development in Africa has been on for quite some time. This quest is imperative and compelling today because of the complexity of Africa’s heterogeneous social realities and the fact that their socio-political structures are ineffective for the management of their daily human activities. He argues that the aggregative model of democracy which shows that the decision-making process ought to aggregate the preferences of citizens in choosing public officials, political parties and policy outcomes as the appropriate response to their diverse socio-political experiences in Africa, is narrow and hence defective.

In his paper “The Language Acquisition Riddle and Factors Shaping the Process and its Outcome”, Ravindra M. Singh aims at critically evaluating the Chomskyan position on.language acquisition as it affects the age-old nature-nurture debate in philosophy. Singh finds Chomsky’s arguments to be problematic as they undermine the role of experience with the native language input to which all humans are exposed as a matter of their day-to-day upbringing in any society. He concludes that consideration of various other relevant facts tends to considerably strengthen the neuro-constructivist account, as articulated by Karmiloff-Smith and others, as a more plausible and satisfactory approach for understanding the process of language acquisition.

The problem of reality is multifaced from the different traditions of philosophical thought. Reena Kannojiya in her paper “An Analysis of the Ontological Aspect of Reality in the Philosophy of Sankara and G. W. F. Hegel” makes an effort to do a comparative study of the problem of reality with respect to its ontological aspect in both the Indian and Western traditions. The paper also explores the methodology of Sankara and Hegel by analyzing the phenomenal and the empirical aspect of Jiva and spirit respectively. Conclusively, this paper identifies consciousness to be subjective in both the thinkers (Sankara and Hegel).

In her paper “Existence and Morality: A Feminist Perspective”, Somdatta Bhattacharyya has made an attempt to show how the existence of an individual can be taken as connected with the concept of morality following the line of feminist schools, especially according to Carol Gilligan. In this context, she has also made a contrast between the theory of moral development of humans as developed by Kohlberg and Gilligan. She concludes by touching upon some criticism that has been made against Gilligan’s position by some feminists.

The aim of the article “Bankimchandra on Society, Equality and Women’s Education” of Sujay Mondal is to reinterpret and reconstruct Bankimchandra’s ideas regarding philosophically significant issues such as the idea of society, the idea of equality, and women’s education and freedom. In doing so, the author has taken the help of some of the prominent philosophical writings and novels of Bankimchandra.

Pramod Kumar Dash in his paper “The Dialectical Synthesis of Action, Knowledge, and Devotion-The Bhagavat Gita Perspective” illustrates that action, knowledge and devotion are three distinct disciplines that directly impact the conative, cognitive, and affective aspects of human life. He observes that the Bhagavat Gita admits and admires both the dialectical oppositions between these three facilities and their synthesis. He concludes that the complete personality (PurnaByaktitva) of a person flourishes like a yogi if he is perfect in all these three facilities of knowledge, action, and devotion.

In her paper “On the possibility of Absolute Freedom”, Purnima Das examines whether Absolute Freedom is possible in this phenomenal world (Vyavahārikaprapañca). In doing so, she has made an effort to show that excessive freedom is not always desirable. She concludes her paper by showing that Absolute Freedom is only possible in case of someone transcending this mundane world. She refers to Rabindranath Tagore and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan to support her thesis.

Scientific modernity has, in a way, compelled philosophy to re-define its objectives, although science is not different from philosophy regarding its aim. It differs from philosophy only in methodology. In her paper “What Does Philosophy Do?”, R. Sharmila elucidates the role of philosophy vis-à-vis the other branches of knowledge with focus on science.

The paper “What Justice Is? : An inquiry into Nagarjuna’s contemplation on ‘happiness’ and ‘liberation’ in Ratnavali” of David Khomdram is not an attempt to project a profound theory of justice, but a reverie on the concept of justice, if it has to arise from Nagarjuna’s writings. This paper is an attempt to realize that Nagarjuna’s sense of virtue is not the popular opposite or the binary other of non-virtue. The author’s endeavour is to show that justice can flourish only in the nature of ‘Supramundane’.

In her article, “A Philosophical Review on Modern Technology as the Future Mode of Education,” Bishnupriya Saha critically examines whether modern technology can provide better scope of quality education to students than the traditional mode of teaching. The author also studies carefully how far a virtual classroom can fulfill the purpose of education as also whether a virtual classroom can take the place of the traditional institutional education system.

The paper of Manik Konch entitled “John Doris’ Critique on Aristotle’s Character Formation” aims to explicate and examine John Doris’ notion of moral character, juxtaposed with the situationists’ conception of moral character, rather than explain the Aristotelian notion of character formation.

The primary objective of Bikash Mondal’s article “B.R. Ambedkar: Social Justice with Special Reference to Affirmative-action” is to argue that the reservation policy of India is a form of affirmative-action, because through the reservation for the deprived sectionof the Indian society, Ambedkar tried to promote equal opportunities to the downtrodden people of India. Further, he has critically evaluated all the aspects of Ambedkar’s views in this respect. The author concludes that the reservation policy initially needs to be implemented to satisfy the principle of equality, and it may be called an equity program.

Knowledge First Epistemology (KFE) is one of the promising views in contemporary epistemology. The paper, “Justification in Knowledge First Epistemology Style: A rejoinder to some criticisms” of Sreejith K. explores an intriguing claim of KFE that knowledge is a prerequisite for justification. The author considers the Gettier cases and Christoph Kelp’s arguments in finally establishing the intriguing claim of KFE.

The article “Dhvani: Beyond the Bounds of Literal Meaning” of Kavita Chauhan explores the nature of the relationship between literal meaning and suggested meaning in relation to the conceptual framework of Dhvani. A significant part of the article is also dedicated to discussing the fine interpretive works of Anandavardhana and Abhinavagupta.

The Nineteenth century provided us significant atheist philosophical views through the rise of Nietzsche’s existentialism, Marxian socialism, and Darwinian evolutionism. Malabika Chakraborty in her paper “Atheist Search for Morality in the 19th Century” discusses the approaches of these philosophers regarding ethics and the advent of morality, without considering God in the issue.

The paper “Neo-humanism: Reframing Humanism for Transcending the Scope of Mind” of Sunandita Bhowmik attempts to answer questions like ‘What distinguishes Neo-humanism from Humanism? What is it that makes Neo-humanism special? How does Neo-humanism work for expansion of mind? etc.’ The study also focuses on the effectiveness of Neo-humanism for universal harmony.

The paper “Mahabharata: A War for Whose Throne?” of Anmol Preet Kaur attempts to explore and analyze the rightful successor of the throne of Hastinapur. To fulfill the above-stated aim, the author divides the paper into three sections viz. i) the custom of niyoga ii) storyline and iii) debate. Finally, a conclusion is drawn based on the sections.

Arka Pratim Mukhoti begins his article, “An Attempt to Respond to Nagarjuna’s Objections against Hetvabhasa” with an illustration of the notion of hetvābhāsa followed by an elucidation of Nagarjuna’s objections against hetvābhāsa as found in Vaidalya-sütra. Along with the objections of Nagarjuna, the author has endeavoured to find out some possible responses on behalf of the Naiyayikas.

Downward causation is an important notion connected with the notion of emergence, especially the strong one. However, many speculate downward causation, and as a result emergence also, to be incoherent. The paper “Causal Closure and Emergence: Revisiting the Conflict between Them and Some Way-outs” of Kamalika Roy tries to sketch out the ways in which this has been done to establish emergence as a plausible concept.

Discursive space on Discursive(Spatial) Formation(s) is a philosophical conceptual import of the famous twentieth century French philosopher Michel Foucault. It is a signification of a complex heterogeneous apparatus. Shirsankar Basu in his article “The Discursive Apparatus between Haraway and Foucault: Locating the Formal Features of Discursive Space” has primarily tried to construct a theory of the instability or porosity of classical bivalence. He has attempted to construct a formal logical milieu to support the discursive formation of mind or gender that he has established through the discursive apparatus between Haraway and Foucault.

The article “Reflection on Nelson Goodman’s Concept of World-making” of Nasima Begam provides a comprehensive overview of the idea of world-making and an analysis of the concept of world versions.

Apabrita Bhattacharya’s paper entitled “An Enquiry into the Notion of Secularism” delineates the notion of ‘secularism’ as a socio-political ideology. The author has discussed the idea of ‘secularism’ as a dynamic process which focuses on human welfare. The author feels that in order to maintain social equilibrium and to create an unbiased society the notion of ‘secularism’ requires revisiting by taking recourse to practical analysis.

Subham Saha in his paper, “Collingwood on Art as Imaginative Experience” provides a comprehensive study of how Collingwood’s theory of art maintains art as an imaging thing without ignoring artistic media. The author has lucidly explained why Collingwood’s theory of art seems so puzzling and concludes by providing a way to dissolve the confusion.

Having thus given a brief idea of the contents of this volume, we would like to state that the department mourns the sad loss of two senior members of our Editorial Board. Prof. Ranjan Mukhopadhyay, Retired Professor in Philosophy, Visva- Bharati University, and Prof. Geeta Ramana, Professor of Philosophy, University of Mumbai. We shall remain ever-grateful to their profound contributions towards the publication and improvement of our journal.

We declare that sincere effort has been made in editing the present volume. However, any mistake inadvertently made may be pointed out for future reference.